Talk:Waikikamukau

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I've removed the following text from the article because, to put it bluntly, it is utter nonsense and not worthy of inclusion in a 'pedia. Sorry if that sounds hard.

Interestingly, a backwards translation of this word from Maori to English, even though it is not a Maori word, gives numerous interesting possibilities:

wai = water, liquid

ki = against, at, into, to, toward

ka is a particle that precedes a verb, with meaning "let us"

mu means draughts (game), insects, or grumble; or one might combine those last two syllables into kamu = "close hand/mouth, seed perfume shrub, beggars ticks" (from the Reed Pocket Dictionary)

kau = cow; but an alternative division of syllables gives "muka" = flax fibre and "u" = appropriate/basket/breast/firm/goal/punctual

One might therefore roughly "translate" as Let's put your grumbling cow (or your flax basket) in the watercourse or to answer the question posed by the word - so it falls in creek! or perhaps to watch it fall in the stream! Nurg 09:32, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Invented by?

Was it invented by Billy T James?? http://waikikamukauchronicles.blogspot.com/2008/12/let-malarkey-start.html Mathmo ^Talk 22:55, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Clarification Needed - Really?

To quote from the article: The name is a joking reference[clarification needed] to the frequency of New Zealand place names starting with "Wai" It is difficult to make something more clear. A literate English reader will correctly read 'Wai' as a homophone of 'Why' and will pick up the pun.

Unless there is an objection, I'll remove the obtrusive tag. Should I cite New Zealand Land Information which has 3031 'Wai...' place names?OrewaTel (talk) 23:36, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

References

Correct Pronunciation

There is a long and rather pathetic history of edit/reversion relating to the pronunciation and meaning. Waikikamukau is obviously a joke name based on the sentence, "Why kick a moo cow?" It is very difficult to conceive of any other explanation. However the correct Te Reo Māori pronunciation is 'why ki ka moo kue'. That makes no sense in English and has little meaning in Māori. Te Reo is spelt phonetically with specific vowels and no syllable ends in a consonant. Consequently 'kika' is pronounced 'key-car' not 'kick-er'. Note both the 'a' and 'i' are short whereas we normally pronounce 'key' and 'car' with long vowels. Also 'au' has an 'u' sound as in 'wood'. This is very interesting but of little relevance to an English pun.

Should we have a note explaining the Māori pronunciation but emphasising the name is an English pun rather than a real Māori name?OrewaTel (talk) 00:41, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

Racehorse?

Wasn't it also the name of a famous racehorse (Possibly Australian - I think?) - probably named after the NZ place, there may have even been (reportedly?) an American horse who's name parodys it in English (all in one word still) Whykickamoocow - of course .. 110.175.46.137 (talk) 02:07, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

Waikikamukau is a thoroughbred horse, born in Australia in 1990, with American sire Clear Choice and Australian dam Empress Koryo. OrewaTel (talk) 04:00, 21 September 2023 (UTC)